Everytime I come to this thread I get a bit more agrivated. I am angry guys! You may find yourselves asking, "Why K7A7O7S, why are you so angry?" And I would then reply "Because guys, I am not playing Galactic Keep right now!"

Im j/k, this is gonna be bad @$$. I cant friggin wait. Keep up all of the hard work.

We're still saying early next year for release. We're considering some 'other options' for development and release based on the flexibility of the platform so we'll be sure to keep you updated on that (possible 'smaller stories' that are launched before the release of the full game that tie into it). No promises, but it's something we're thinking about.

Thought I'd throw this out there: if there's anything you're interested in knowing about the game in general (or the game world), feel free to ask and we'll do our best to answer here.

Things are coming along well with Galactic Keep, this week we've been focusing on developing and filling out some of the core missions. Here's a screen showing part of one of the new maps we've just created for a mission titled (tentatively) 'Mhawot Station Massacre'.

In the mission, you stop at a outpost station to gather supplies on your way to the large planet it's orbiting. You soon find that something is awry on the station and you can choose to check it out or move on.

Here's a section of the mission that occurs soon after gaining clearance and landing on the outposts main platform. Close to where you landed your ship, you see a leather bag on the ground near a small opening in the deck plating and you decide to reach down and pick it up:

As you do so, thereís a whine and a shutter as the plating near the opening curls up slightly. You move closer to see what looks like some sort of creature underneath but you canít tell what it is. It must be pretty strong to bend the plating like that.

DECISION 12a) Take the bag 12b) Leave it alone and back away

D12a) You yank the bag toward you as the plating is wrenched upward and is torn from the deck and hurtled into space. The creature begins to stand and you realize itís a ĎFORLORNí. These massive beasts can fold their limbs to get into very tight spaces.

Who knows how it got to the station. Youíve heard of these things hiding out on space debris and refuse without feeding for years at a time though. Itís probably starving. This particular specimen is abnormally huge once it has completely unfolded. It sizes you up then lunges in your direction!

...looks like there's going to be a fight. A tiny taste of the mood and story in GK: Dice Battles!

We started with the first one, more generic and simple, geometric. We like the idea of it being so simple and 'representative' of the characters. We actually toyed with the idea of using a penny or a bottle cap (I've player RPGs with coins on many occasions).

The second one is an example of how we could show the race of the character on the token (with a profile portrait). Doing the mover this way has its advantages: the main one being that it's still 'real' looking and fits with the style of the game quite well.

The last one is more of a character 'sculpt' version. There would be one per race. Problem with this one is that in order to get the whole character we sacrifice the perspective (depending on the map being used). You are actually looking down at the map so to have this perspective could be weird.

That's funny, icepulse asked exactly what what I was going to ask - I'm wondering if the token represents just one member of your party (so are there multiple tokens, each one showing a different member of your party) - or is it just one token for the whole party.

I like the 'generic' token best - but it only makes sense to me if it's representing the whole party. If I have to remember which party member each generic token is representing, then I think it's much more important to add in the portrait.

And while the sculpt is my least favorite, one possibility to consider would be having the option of different token choices, giving players the ability to choose any one of these styles. Of course, I'm sure that adds to the development time, so don't add time on my account.

To sum up, I think the generic is best, with the portrait necessary if there's going to be a token representing each member of your party.

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